


Mars

by orphan_account



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Beaches, Cats, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, this was really self indulgent ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-12 02:10:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15329397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Naegi drops off a few cats on the island, including a black one, which takes a particular liking to Komaeda and Hinata.Perhaps it isn't so unlucky.





	Mars

**Author's Note:**

> hehe I haven't written a fic in years.. here I am komahina 2018 lets go  
> it's set sometime ambiguously after DR3. this idea came to me right before I was going to sleep I kind of just went with it. i love fluff, a lot  
> \- rated T for language and some other stuff that I felt warranted T rather than G rating

“Should we name it?”

Hinata is looking down, nose scrunched up a bit, at a fairly small black cat rubbing against his leg. About two weeks ago, Naegi had made a trip to the island and, upon arrival, shown up with four cats. He was very awkward about explaining why he brought them, saying, “Um, well, haha — I felt really bad seeing these lost cats roam around this building I’ve been passing by a lot. I figured I’d bring them here next time I came since — er — I guess they’ll have people that can pay attention to them here.”

This was silently, and seemingly unanimously, accepted by the island inhabitants. Gundham was particularly excited about the cats. For the most part, they roamed around the cottages, and would occasionally end up in the restaurant. Nobody minded their presence. It was kind of heartwarming to see cats laying around, all outstretched.

“Hm. Is it a boy or a girl?” Komaeda frowns. “Well, it doesn’t really matter. You can name it.”

Hinata considers a few names in his head. He thinks it is particularly amusing that a black cat has taken favoritism to Komaeda and himself. He could tell that it made Komaeda somewhat uneasy which, he supposed, was fair, all things considered. What with black cats being bad luck and all. Plus, it really seemed to _only_ want to be around him and Hinata, which was — for lack of a better word — interesting.

“We can call it… uh,” he scrabbles for a name in his mind among the ones he’d thought up, “…Mars? Like the planet.”

Komaeda makes a face as if to show that he is judging this name choice, pointing his index finger just below his lower lip. “I don’t understand what the planet Mars has to do with a black cat, but… What do I know?” Pause. “Either way, since you came up with it, I think it’s a perfect name!”

“I was — I was just saying it was like the planet. Making the reference.” Hinata sighs. The cat circles around his feet, even when he shuffles a bit toward the restaurant exit. He leans down, pats it on the head nervously, and picks it up, moving his arms about in a fumbly manner in order to hold the cat properly. He turns his attention back to Komaeda, who is now sitting at a table, expression unreadable.

“It’s kind of cute,” Hinata says, very truthfully. He doesn’t want Komaeda to dislike it. “Right?”

“Mmm,” Komaeda answers offhandedly, “Something bad will probably happen if I pet it, so you’ll have to do all the dirty work here, Hinata-kun.”

“Dirty work? What, you mean like giving it attention?” Mars leans his head against Hinata’s shoulder. “Gundham and Sonia are feeding all the cats anyway so there really isn’t much ‘dirty work’ for me to do.”

“Aha, I guess you’re right. Though me not being able to do anything with this cat really does emphasize how useless I am, so maybe…”

“Komaeda, it’s fine, don’t worry.” Hinata lets Mars hop out from his arms and slink away into the kitchen. It reminds him of their initial plan to find something for dinner. He follows the cat and searches around the refrigerator and cupboards, eyes scanning various items that weren’t particularly appealing.

He settles on sunflower seeds and sticks two frozen soft pretzels in the toaster oven. Mars watches him from the ground, and although Hinata knows it is in fact a cat, he feels it is disapproving of his sad and meager dinner choices. But he’s very lazy, and Hanamura made an unnecessarily large lunch, and this is what he tells himself as he takes out the pretzels and burns the side of his hand on the oven.

“Fuck.” He glares at the cat. “Shut up.” He turns, then, and sees Komaeda standing in the doorway.

“Talking to cats? Ah, you have such a sympathetic personality, Hinata-kun.”

“It was looking at me funny because I burnt my hand on the … oven.” The deeper Komaeda’s look gets, the more ridiculous Hinata feels, and he sniffles to diffuse the imaginary tension. “Do you want to go to the beach to eat these?”

“Whatever you want!” Komaeda beams. He shifts from one foot to the other. “Do you want me to hold something?”

“Actually, could you get water bottles?” Hinata waits a moment while Komaeda fishes two bottles from the fridge and then begins toward the restaurant exit, down the stairs, and out the gates to the path leading to the center island bridge. Komaeda walks beside him, humming, Hinata thinks, but he’s not sure what.

They’re eating pretty late. It’s the summertime, and the sun is beginning to lower itself onto the horizon, flaring red and pink and orange into the sky like spilled watercolors. For the first time in a few weeks it was a bearable temperature. The air conditioners have been temperamental lately, even with Souda’s constant attending to them.

As they cross the bridge to the second island, Hinata can’t help but feel annoyingly pensive.

He sure does spend a lot of time alone with Komaeda. Granted, he spends time with his other friends, too, and sometimes Komaeda is also there, and he feels glad that everyone is able to heal through bonding with one another.

But it’s different.

Hinata spends time with his other friends, but he’s never alone with any one of his friends save for Komaeda. Everyone is aware of this, doesn’t comment on it. And the way he spends his time with the other male is very funny. More times than Hinata can count they go for walks, loosely holding hands, blissfully ignoring how close they sit to each other. Everyone is aware of this as well, and doesn’t comment on it. Hinata has a habit of holding Komaeda’s good hand with both of his own when they’re eating breakfast with the others, running his finger in mindless loops around his knuckle.

Even still, nobody comments, despite the elephant in the room growing larger and larger.

Once they arrive at Chandler Beach, Hinata pulls himself out from his thoughts, feeling a bit muddy. Komaeda looks at him quizzically, drags two chairs next to one another, and sits. Hinata follows suit. They exchange pretzels and water bottles. “Sorry if it’s not warm anymore,” Hinata says, waving his pretzel a bit.

“Oh, Hinata-kun, don’t worry about that. I’m lucky you made one for someone like me anyway.”

“Er, all I had to do was put it in the toaster oven.”

The white-haired boy smiles. Hinata’s chest hurts. It feels like there is a balloon expanding inside his ribcage, rubbing against the underside of his sternum, desperately close to his heart.

The silence is like sandpaper. Hinata pulls apart the pretzel, crosses his ankles across each other and squints at the sun.

It’s funny, really, how he knows he is ignoring the way he and Komaeda act around one another. It’s funny, really, how he thinks about this as he rests his head on the other boy’s shoulder, finishing his pretzel. He opens the bag of sunflower seeds and picks the shells apart with his fingers, rather than his mouth, to give his hands something to do.

“Say, Komaeda…”

He’s interrupted by the sound of footsteps, and is somewhat relieved, because he really doesn’t know what he was about to say. He jolts away from Komaeda and turns around. Souda approaches them, holding what appears to be shave ice. Only one.

“Man, you guys were hiding here? Sonia made shave ice. We didn’t know where you went, but figured we should find you and give you some. Uh…” He looks down at his feet and then back up, “Sorry to interrupt. Anyway, see you later.” He hands Hinata the plastic green cup, awkwardly scratches his neck, and retreats. Hinata catches a wink.

Now that he’s been interrupted, Hinata feels very disoriented, and he sits, holding the shave ice, quite stupidly. He shakes his head, as if swatting off cobwebs, picks out the spoon and tastes.

It is excruciatingly sweet.

He must have been making a face, because Komaeda says, “Are you all right?”

“Yeah. It’s really sweet. You don’t like sweet stuff, right? It tastes like super saturated sugar.”

Komaeda gapes. “You remembered that? Hinata-kun, I’m so undeserving.”

Hinata’s lips pull into a thin line. “Yeah, well, I did. Don’t say stuff like that.” He grips the plastic cup in his hand tightly, crumpling it a bit. It’s not that he’s mad at Komaeda. It’s just that it’s frustrating hearing him degrade himself all the time. He doesn’t know how to fix that.

“I’m speaking honestly! You spend so much time with me. There isn’t anything special or memorable about me. I can’t understand why you keep asking me to do things with you, but, if it’s what Hinata-kun wants, then it’s probably fine.” He smiles again, like light reflecting off glass into fragments of rainbows.

Hinata’s metaphorical balloon expands. Ah.

The outré moment is interrupted when Mars hops up onto Komaeda’s chair, onto his thighs. He lurches forward, whacking his hand against the cup of shave ice, which goes comedically flying through the air, and the cat dashes away from the scene. Hinata’s shirt and the edge of his cheek are sprayed in pink shave ice syrup.

“Ah — the cat — I’m so sorry, Hinata-kun!” Komaeda’s eyes go explosively wide upon seeing the state of Hinata’s shirt. “I’m so useless, it’s my fault and now your shirt’s gross! And it’s on your cheek, too, look what happens when you’re around me…”

Komaeda reaches up and touches Hinata’s cheek, most likely to rub away the syrup, but Hinata’s impulses yank his brain down and he grabs the other’s wrist. So this is how it’s going to be.

It must be the black cat, he tells himself. The black cat heard Hinata say they were going to the beach. Or something.

“…Hinata-kun?” Komaeda shakes his own hand a bit. Hinata is spacing. His face is also very red. He can feel it.

“Oh, um, sorry.” He doesn’t let go but loosens his grip.

“I don’t mind putting my hand on your face if that’s what you want, but this is a little strange. And my hand might get stuck there, since it’s sticky. That’s a joke, of course!” Komaeda is smiling again. Hinata clacks his teeth together; releases his grip on the wrist. He watches the white-haired boy’s arm floats back down into his lap, watches him wipe his palm against the fabric of his jeans to de-stick-ify it.

Hinata’s fingers twitch. He grabs both Komaeda’s hands, feeling unbelievably stupid, lets go, then picks them up again. This is going really poorly.

“I like you,” he says, in a rather stoney voice. Figures he should be honest. “Please go out with me.”

Komaeda’s face goes through a wide variety of expressions, from shock to fear to an eventual gentle grin. “You couldn’t possibly want to be with someone like me. I’m really, really the scum of the earth, and if —“

“Stop, Komaeda. Stop.” A pause. “Stop.” Hinata then plants his hands on Komaeda’s face, suddenly albeit softly, trying to convey the message. “Just listen to me. I’m being serious. You feel the same way, yeah? You told me in the program. I’m telling you now that I feel the same way.”

“Ah,” is all the other male says.

The sun has gone down, and isn’t there to watch him anymore, so Hinata decides to continue being impulsive. “I’m going to kiss you,” he says. It almost feels like a warning, but he doesn’t mean for it to sound that way.

Komaeda doesn’t say anything but moves his head ever so slightly in what appears to be a nod of sorts. Hinata relaxes his hands; moves one to the area bridging Komaeda’s neck and shoulder. He does what he proclaimed — and kisses the other square on the mouth. It is quite short lived.

He pulls back and studies Komaeda’s face. Then he kisses him again, better this time — at least that’s what he hopes — tilting his head a bit, like people do in movies. Hinata hasn’t kissed anyone before. He isn’t sure if he’s doing it the right way, as much as it makes him feel like a loser to admit it.

Komaeda opens his mouth enough for Hinata to notice and he licks into the other boy’s mouth, moving his body closer. Komaeda settles his arms around Hinata’s waist and they break apart briefly before resuming. It’s a bit awkward, truthfully, but also doesn’t matter.

Hinata sucks against Komaeda’s bottom lip, then resumes pressing his tongue around the inside of his mouth. Komaeda says something akin to _hah,_ and this makes Hinata pull away. A line of saliva connects between their mouths, and he swats at it. “Agh. Sorry, that’s kind of gross.”

Komaeda’s eyes are glazed over, like an empty swimming pool. “Hinata-kun,” he says quietly, “Please, again, if you —“

Hinata doesn’t need to be told twice. He kisses Komaeda again, open mouthed, and then slides his head down and changes the position of his hands to bite at Komaeda’s neck. A few times. More than a few times. When he sits back, he’s a little sweaty and warm.

They’re at the beach. This is silly.

“Should we, er, go back?” Hinata’s voice shakes. He stands, not waiting for an answer, and takes Komaeda’s hand. They are very much speedwalking back to the cottages, and it makes Hinata laugh out loud. The moon watches him, blushing a white glow on the island. It illuminates the water of the sea and the pool and the flowers and the trees. It feels like a photograph.

Hinata fumbles around in his pocket for the key to his cottage. He hears a meow.

Mars sits a few feet away, looking at them, very knowingly. Its tail flickers at the tip, assessing the situation in the way that cats do.

Komaeda smiles at the cat, finally, and Hinata kisses him on the corner of his mouth and says, “Not much bad luck.”

 

—

 

Mars is waiting outside the door the next morning, as if waiting to hear about the night. Hinata runs his hand through his hair as he looks at the cat, unsure how to explain the bruises on Komaeda’s neck. He truly has no excuses for how they got there. There are no viable lies.

It’s all right. Hinata is happy, and he is happy that Komaeda seems happy. The sun feels nice on his skin, casting a golden sheen on the roofs of the buildings. In the distance, a bird calls out. The sky is devoid of clouds, which is a rarity. This cat truly seems to be a good omen.

The two of them trudge up the stairs into the restaurant, fingers linked, Mars following behind in a little prance. They are the last people to arrive, and are met with stares from everyone.

Souda’s laugh cracks into the silence. “Haha! Finally! I mean, we’ve been waiting _forever_.”

Hinata feels his eye twitch but he smiles. “We?”

“Yeah. Like, everyone on the island? It seriously took a long-ass time for you guys to do it.”

“Do it.” Komaeda is the one that repeats this. He slaps his neck in realization. “Ah! Do you mean having sex with Hinata-kun?”

At this statement, Hinata has to cover his face with his other hand, as if it will drown out the sound of everyone laughing. He slides his hand down his face in a deliberately dramatic way. All he wants is breakfast.

 Something brushes his leg. He looks down and sees Mars, who meows loudly.

 “It’s all thanks to this cat!’ Komaeda adds gleefully, “Thank you, Mars, good-bad-luck cat. I really look up to you. I suppose I look down, actually. You’ve given me such a hopeful opportunity to be happy.”

 Mars meows. Hinata puts his hand on his face again, and Owari claps him on the shoulder.

 He’ll need to thank Naegi for the cats.

**Author's Note:**

> wwwwh this felt a bit ooc perhaps but thank you for reading!  
> comments and kudos and stuff are appreciated


End file.
